You will need:
- Ball
- Bat
The next time your parents stop you from playing cricket, tell them it’s a
science project!
INSTRUCTIONS
- Ask a friend to throw the ball slowly towards you, while you attempt to hit the ball with your bat.
- Hit the ball from different areas of the bat with relatively the same force being applied each time.
- Does the ball travel farther when it comes into contact with a specific area of the bat even though the same amount of force is applied by you?
RESULT
While a bat may be made of wood, which is quite solid, it does flex a bit. As a result, it vibrates when it comes into contact with the ball. The greater the vibration that passes through the bat, the more energy is used by the bat, resulting in very little energy being left for the ball, thus making it bounce slower. Hitting the ball higher or lower down on the bat will create greater vibrations. However, when the ball makes contact with the bat at a specific spot (the sweet spot), the bat absorbs most of the vibrations and you can easily hit the ball far with much less effort. This spot is the centre of percussion of the bat.
